Required readings:
- Bain, Ken. 2004. “Chapter 3: How Do They Prepare to Teach?” Pg. 48-67 in What the Best College Teachers Do.
- Wiggins, Grant and Jay McTighe. 2005. “Backward Design.” Pg. 13-34 in Understanding By Design.
- Kottak, Conrad, Jane J. White, Richard H. Furlow, and Patricia C. Rice, eds. 1997. Excerpts from The Teaching of Anthropology: Problems, Issues, and Decisions. Mountain View, CA: Mayfield Publishing Company. (Annotate in Perusall)
Assignments:
Complete the following for each course you are designing.
- Write three overall learning outcomes for the course.
- Make a list of the more specific skills students will need or should develop to be able to achieve those outcomes.
- (Optional) Create a visual representation of these outcomes/skills. [See examples of graphic displays of student learning objectives in this blog post by Billie Hara.]
(Note: Syllabus design is an iterative process. As you develop your course syllabi, it’s a good idea to revisit earlier steps and revise if necessary. For example, you may want to look back at your course descriptions as you craft learning outcomes.)
Recommended Resources:
- “Bloom’s Taxonomy,” Vanderbilt Center for Teaching; “Action Verbs for Bloom’s Taxonomy,” Utica College.
- Blank Understanding By Design planning template
- Fink, L. Dee. 2003. “A Self-Directed Guide to Designing Courses for Significant Learning.”
- “Essential Learning Outcomes,” Association of American Colleges & Universities.
- Jenks, Angela. 2016. “Lessons for Learning-Centered Course Design.” Teaching Tools, Cultural Anthropology website, April 29.
- Nilson, Linda. 2002. “The Graphic Syllabus: Shedding a Visual Light on Course Organization.” To Improve the Academy 20 (1): 238-259.
- Middendorf, Joan and David Pace. 2004. “Decoding the Disciplines: A Model for Helping Students Learn Disciplinary Ways of Thinking.” New Directions for Teaching and Learning 98(Summer): 1-12.
- Coleman, Simon and Bob Simpson. 1999. “Unintended Consequences?: Anthropology, Pedagogy, and Personhood.” Anthropology Today 15(6):3-6.